JG n Fifi: Crete, Creta, Kriti

Crete, Creta, Kriti

MALTA, MALTA to CRETE & CRETE = End of May, Beginning of June

Everything seems to have at least three names here. Anyway, we made it in five and a half days and arrived on a Monday morning to a sunny, quiet and pretty marina in North Western Crete – Chania, Xania, Khania......

The crossing from Malta,

Street in Valletta

Valletta Harbour

Cool Matlese Buses

approx 480nm, could have taken less time, but the wind didn’t always favour us. Looking in Malta, there seemed to be nothing scary ahead, so we left after an unscheduled on-land-last-dinner, to try and keep on top of what is a rough schedule.... 2hr delay didn’t do much harm I’m sure; might as well leave a little later and with a full tummy ;0)’. This was also after a few last minute jobs....

Mael & JG with the First letters

Get that G straight now!

C for Crabster

As 'ragged' as her name!

But we couldn’t quite motor into the night until doing the ever-eventful fuel-up first; waking the sleeping man on the fuel barge only to pleasantly surprise him by taking the filling line onboard and down into the tanks under the sofa cushions......!

I don’t think this will ever cease to amuse those not used to Ragged Company’s eccentricity! One takes the filing line passed the fuel inlet, down the stairs and into the main area, lifts up the sofa, unscrews two tank tops and fills her up! It is always nice to leave a smile behind you especially when heading out into the non-moonlit night away from the warm and hospitable lights of Valletta.

JG began helming and at midnight I took my first shift.... WOW! The night plays tricks with me I’m sure of it. As much as I love the freedom, the shear space, the openness and beauty of night sailing..... it’s not always this way. I started in the pleasant company of dolphins for a mere five minutes but they took a turn which i wish i had taken too! I’m going to call it a tanker play park. So imagine you’re leaving the bright lights of the city and land (!) behind you. There should be absolutely nothing in front of you for 5 full days at least but as we departed there was what looked like a cities orange glow exactly inline with us / our heading.

tankers at night

Of course the charts being charts informed us that we were heading for the Med’s equivalent to Alton Towers and we gave what we thought was a wide enough berth to such a glory. Tankers being tankers are big though, and if there is not enough room in the play park, they quite simply decide to sit quietly outside the barriers. So when Fi takes her shift, JG had her heading to just the edge of the last orange smudge..... When nicely tucked up in bed (with the rumble of the motor to lull him to sleep), Fi on the other hand got dangerously close to her ‘big boys’...... and with no help from the fishermen.

Now i’m sure, had i been bobbing along in daylight the intimidation would have been somewhat smaller, but, fellow sailors and alike, please bare in mind that in this darkness our lights show us to be a boat under power and over 50m when motoring (still to change these somehow!). Approaching at what seemed a very sensible distance, the flashing lights of the little Fishermans buoys crept up on me a lot quicker than expected. Before i knew it, I blessed the fact that we were under motor and took a turn to starboard / right to avoid what I feared could be a nice tangle in some laid nets...... might have a been a fi’s-imagination–gone-wild (freak-out) moment but that’s what it looked like, subsequently us turning to head straight towards Mr Tanker......

Now imaginations grow i feel, especially when under a little pressure so as the meters between us lessened, i started to feel as though this big boy might actually be moving....... towards me. With a bulbous bow way bigger than our entire hull, the revs of our engine increased along with my heart-rate and we dashed past within 50m of her bow into what i was hoping was freedom....... HELLO Mr Fisherman!! Two fishing boats to starboard, both heading for me and my course and one trawling. In a bid to draw pretty pictures on the chart plotter it was my turn to change course again and play cat and running, as-fast-as-i-can, mouse!

And nope, still not caught a fish yet.... :0( and all was as calm as a mill pond when Mael took over.

Although his first two hours under steam were his taster to RC, it was not long before Mael got to experience her under sail after hoisting that main at 9am the following morning and hitting the 4knot mark! So gentle i even managed to bake:

Chocolate Biscuit cake

We got rain, (only appearance so far!) sun, cloud and more cloud to our surprise.

The wind (being our most examined weather criteria) came from all directions in about 5 minutes. I even thought we had lightening at one point but it was so localised and of similar strength for such an intense period of time (this was about midnight) that we thought it could have been blasts from Libya.... :0(

So time ticked by. A few nights and a few days.

Cpt JG getting wise with that beard

concentrated Mael

Freaking out fi

We passed what three naval architects thought was some sort of Helicopter carrier (awesome great big grey navy vessel) with a party onboard – lucky things! No more dolphins passed us and the little turtles of before simply seemed not to like the Cretan sea. Birds were also few and far between so there were a few days of nothing but us, sea and sky.

Sailing wise we sometimes touched the 6knot mark but all in all it was light winds with calm or choppy seas. Day 4 / 5 gave us a nasty shock with the engine who decided enough was enough and it didn’t want to start........ didn’t even turn over.

THE engine

But thanks to the advice of a wise farmer to his helpless daughter, who was stuck and unable to start her old diesel car one day, we tried the good old ‘hit the solenoid’ solution and she rumbled comfortably into action! (THANKS DAD!)

Good advice

errrrrm?

Having no auto-pilot, Ragged Company requires ones full attention for the three hours you are on the helm. We rotated comfortably through these shifts (far more so with our extra crew man :0) ) and it was not sooooo long before land was spotted (oooh i was lucky enough to win the first restaurant choice in seeing it first!) Appearing first as a darkening in the horizon, the beautiful Crete grew in grandeur and once again surprisingly in height.

Just as she appeared we had to turn away..... but that’s sailing after all, tack, tack, tack.......